NZCT Donates $230,000 towards Upgrade of Chatham Island Community Pool A good start for the New Year for the Chatham Island Community Swimming Pool Trust. NZCT awarded the Trust $230,000 towards an upgrade of the Chatham Island Community Pool. Secretary …NZCT Donates $230,000 towards Upgrade of Chatham Island Community Pool

A good start for the New Year for the Chatham Island Community Swimming Pool Trust. NZCT awarded the Trust $230,000 towards an upgrade of the Chatham Island Community Pool. Secretary Eva Cherie Tuck says they will use the grant to put a building over the existing open-air swimming pool to extend the swimming season from two months over summer to all year round.

Eva Cherie says, “NZCT’s grant is important to us. As Trustees we see swimming and learning to swim as a life skill that our community and children have a right to learn in a safe environment. Our disadvantage is we are an isolated Island surrounded by ocean known as the Roaring Forties and with this grant we can provide that safe environment.”

As well as the costs of a building, the grant will go towards upgrading the pool pump to salt water, changing rooms and solar power for heating the pool. According to Eva Cherie, the next steps for the Trust are applying for the shortfall from other funders and fundraising. Once the Trust has the funds they need, they will start building.

“As Secretary at the Chatham Island Community Swimming Pool Trust, I am very passionate about swimming. I value the importance of learning to swim as a life skill and the benefits of aqua recreation for health and wellbeing. It’s great to be able to help realise this important community aspiration. I cannot wait until we can start building a swimming pool where our community can enjoy aqua recreation all year round,” ends Eva Cherie.